ECA Update: Amazon discount gone "for the time being"; in process of self-destruction

[Justin42]

(I know this probably isn't the best place/way to post this but I don't know how many people check deal discussions/graveyard/etc-- maybe this should be a closed sticky for a week or two?) Please don't turn this into a flame war...

Latest update, direct from the ECA:
Amazon has decided to suspend their discount offering for the time being. The exploit in the coupons was/is too large a detractor until a new solution can be determined.

Separately, several new merchant partners will be coming online this and next week with discounts and special promotions that they'd like to offer members.

[jacknicklson]

Might as well lock this topic because no good discussion will come of it. Thanks for the update, just saw that they labeled the Amazon discount as no longer available

[mietha]

Well, since all of their other discounts are completely useless, I don't see the new ones being any better. Sigh...

[SimaYi]

Thanks for the update.

[menikmati]

I don't think any other merchant could even come close to Amazon, especially since I have Prime.

[jag0]

(sheds a tear)

Amazon was pretty much the SOLE reason I got an ECA membership. To be fair, I jumped on the "Free for a year" bandwagon, so I didn't lose a thing but the 5 minutes that it took me to sign up.

HOWEVER, if one of the new companies coming on board is NetFlix, it'll be WELL worth it :)

[Jackie Chandler]

There's still B1G1 free on Fandango, right? That's pretty nice.

[confoosious]

golden goose killed.

thanks all you stackers!

[TheBomb69]

Shame that jackoffs had to stack and ruin a good thing.

[spree4567]

Gah

Very disappointed but not surprised. I'm sure Amazon started noticing people getting 20-30% off orders and weren't too happy. Just to think that codes that were only entered once and could be tied to your account for the lifetime of your membership would have fixed all of this.

I have little faith in the rest of their new offers even being close to Amazon's but my membership goes through April so I'll hang on in the hope that Amazon comes back.

[GuardianE]

There's still B1G1 free on Fandango, right? That's pretty nice.

If I remember correctly, that's an offer that's available to anyone with a Visa Signature card. ECA just directs you to that site, but anyone can get the discount.

[sinned47]

NOOOO
i too signed up for eca because of amazon. i am so disappointed they decided to discontinue this promotion. the sole solution would be a unique code that only allows for one use per day.

[silentspork]

Nice work everyone! You know who you are.

[takotchi]

Glad I didn't pay for the ECA. I got to use it a grand total of one time anyway... ugh.

[Killrig]

Thanks for the update. I got a lot of use out of my 10% off, so I don't feel bad about signing up for the deal when it wasn't free. I had plenty orders shipped WELL before it became free.

Hopefully the new deal will be a good one or the community will get better. Where it is now, it's not that great. All I really see from them is an email wrapping up the daily gaming news AFTER I've read it elsewhere.

Thanks again.

[foxdvd]

The problem with the "other" discounts are that they are with sites that mark their product up 60% more then you can get at other places, so the so called discount is not one. With amazon you knew you were getting a good deal. I guarantee that what ever discount they bring on will be for a company that is overpriced, or a discount you can find anyway at some other place.

[y2jasper]

damn it will be missed, although on a side note i atleast hope they get the PAX and Comic Con discounts back since i was interested in going to those.

[Killrig]

Nice work everyone! You know who you are.

That information was also revealed on other websites, such as FatWallet. The FW community is a juggernaut.

[doodofdoods]

golden goose killed.

thanks all you stackers!

My only regret is that I didn't stack more.

[Porksta]

Well, at least I got $5 off ODST and $30 off MW2. Although I will start calling Amazon and seeing if they will apply the discount.

[Jaysonguy]

My only regret is that I didn't stack more.
Way to be proud of being a thief

If you can't afford games perhaps you should have picked another hobby

[Jackie Chandler]

NOOOO
i too signed up for eca because of amazon. i am so disappointed they decided to discontinue this promotion. the sole solution would be a unique code that only allows for one use per day.
That wouldn't fix much. Pre-orders would be more exploitable than ever if they were like that. What Amazon needs to do is provide one code per member and address. That way, Amazon could be sure nobody is "sharing" codes (thanks to the address), and if only one code works per address, stacking wouldn't even be possible.

[Killbomb]

Oh well, I got it free and at least got to use it twice. I'll be done with Amazon when my Prime trial runs out.

[kearns710]

Just got an email Stating

"...As indicated on the Entertainment Consumers Association website, no ECA member discount is currently available, nor is one planned. ..."

[bojay1997]

Just a reminder that ECA memberships are set up to auto-renew by default, so be sure to cancel your membership prior to the 12 months if you were among those of us who actually paid to join.

[Lan_Zer0]

That is too bad. Though, it was pretty clear that the deal wasn't going to last very long in its current form (getting batches of codes every few months). That just seemed like a hack job from the get go. The stacking ability and free membership made it painfully clear that this collaboration lacked the personnel and foresight to keep it alive.

Hopefully something new will come from this. I know my Amazon orders skyrocketed after I joined.

[artego]

I bought a subscription, and only used the amazon discount twice. Only did a 30% stack once.

I'm sad to see it go, but it's understandable.

[THHG]

Now that it's officially gone (for now) I personally think all ECA/Amazon discussion should be banned from this forum. Each and every deal thread is littered with the same ECA topics and it's getting pretty annoying.

Having a dedicated thread for ECA discussion is fine, but bringing up the same three topics in each and every deal thread is not. Hopefully I'm not alone in feeling this way.

[Bebpo]

While it's fair for Amazon to do this, the end result is just going to be them losing a ton of sales.

I bought about 30 games while I had my ECA with working codes. I haven't bought a single game since the codes have been gone and "on the fence" or "impulse" purchases are now going to be gone and I'll just stick to the games I definitely want. 10% off made those other types of games purchases far more likely.

[mrpmosh]

Amazon (http://www.theeca.com/amazon)

http://www.theeca.com/files/uploads/amazon.gif (http://www.amazon.com/)
This promotion is no longer available.

[twztid13]

30 day free gamefly membership (2 games @ a time).

[hyunkim]

i find it hysterical how in the halo odst thread, almost every person talked about how they stacked eca codes on their order, and no one said a word. now that the eca discount is gone, the moral police just erupted. i wonder how many of them actually were aware of stacking and actually refused to stack the codes when making their videogame orders, or would refuse to if they had made an order during that time period.

[sinned47]

That wouldn't fix much. Pre-orders would be more exploitable than ever if they were like that. What Amazon needs to do is provide one code per member and address. That way, Amazon could be sure nobody is "sharing" codes (thanks to the address), and if only one code works per address, stacking wouldn't even be possible.

simply clear the buffer which would eliminate the previous code if people try to stack.

[Strider2K99]

Yeah, this blows. I never even got to use a code for my God of War Collection which I only ordered because it was in my Quick Picks. ECA codes were down at the time and now, I'm losing hope they will ever come back.

[krowbar]

:cry:

ECA, I hardly knew ye....

[etcrane]

whaa whaaa whaaaa whaaaaaaaaaa ... ;-)

[jacknicklson]

Hopefully j codes last until Black Friday

[3rdbass]

Just a reminder that ECA memberships are set up to auto-renew by default, so be sure to cancel your membership prior to the 12 months if you were among those of us who actually paid to join.
Even if you joined for free make sure to cancel it as then you will get charged after your free year.

[joshnorm]

Wish they would just put it on the account only or account/address.

I never stacked the codes and when I attempted to delete a Pre-order to get on the Tekken Deal I lost that code. It really is a shame that it fell through.

[xycury]

The biggest issue to this I think started with the free give-away.... if they didn't give out free 10% card, then we wouldn't have ran out of codes. If we didn't run out of codes this soon, then well we wouldn't have stacking. If we wouldn't have stacking, we wouldn't have no codes now...

So... I paid for mine... not even a student discount.... full 19.99. But I did get a membership free to give away... and I definately got that $20 back.... but that could be that I'm $20 richer if I would have waited a month. But by then I probably couldn't get any codes.... how cruel.

In either case, losing Amazon makes me sad. all the other "offers" are lame, besides maybe PAX or something....

I was really hoping to reap the rewards during black friday with codes and prime... guess I'm going Prime only.

:cry:

[Mizzou75]

Well, I still had a code attached to my account that I never used, so I ordered MW2 with it. We'll see if it goes through. That was the only time I ever got a chance to use it, oh well.

[bcb4589]

Can somebody tell me how do you cancel the auto-renewal? I see a cancel button in view under my account but I don't know if that cancels the membership or the auto-renewal. Thanks

[espionage]

while i didn't think it was a good idea to open up ECA membership for free to everyone (i was one of the paying members), it would be neat if Amazon considered offering something like a 10% discount on all gaming purchases for an annual price, just like Amazon Prime.

I'd certainly pay $20 (or even more) to get 10% off on every gaming order over a year for game orders from Amazon. Why bother with the ECA at all? People paid to join the ECA primarily for the Amazon discount.

[eau]

I guess the free membership offer gets the blame. It exhausted the coupon pool too rapidly, which forced the untimely new batch to out and opened up the stacking opportunity.

The program was fairly problem free until the free membership rolled along.

Well. I hope Amazon will reconsider a re-participation later on, especially when they see a decline in their game orders.

[benjamouth]

At least they've admitted its dead, I won't have to keep checking if its coming back.

$20 initial cost saved me $84 in the end, so that's not bad.

This thread should probably be locked or at least moved now.

[bluem00se]

Well that sucks, considering most people, myself included, joined the ECA solely for the amazon discount...

[dcm1602]

Im crossing my fingers this results in 10% off at newegg.

[judyjudyjudy]

Drat, I was waiting on a code for DJ Hero. At least I was able to get my membership fees back in discounts before it became free. At least I won't be waiting around for the codes to come back anymore.

[confoosious]

I guess the free membership offer gets the blame. It exhausted the coupon pool too rapidly, which forced the untimely new batch to out and opened up the stacking opportunity.

The program was fairly problem free until the free membership rolled along.

Well. I hope Amazon will reconsider a re-participation later on, especially when they see a decline in their game orders.


Spot on.


At least they've admitted its dead, I won't have to keep checking if its coming back.

$20 initial cost saved me $84 in the end, so that's not bad.

This thread should probably be locked or at least moved now.

I hope Amazon offers their own membership. I'd join for $20 or even $30 and bypass the ECA.

No mea culpas from the lady at ECA who said "don't worry, the benefit is definitely coming back"? She seems grossly incompetent on all fronts.

[Killrig]

Yeah, it's a shame. I became an Amazon-exclusive buyer after I joined the ECA in April. Along with many others, my orders from Amazon went through the roof thanks to them almost always having the lowest price, Amazon Prime w/ free 2-day shipping, and the 10% every video game purchased. I have pre-orders with them that are going well into 2010 as items kept showing up in my Gold Box on a regular basis. It was great! But I knew it wasn't going to last forever. We ALL knew that.

So in the end, none of this should be a surprise to anyone. There were tons of issues with the codes on a consistent basis. Throw in free membership advertised all over the internet which invoked the stacking bug -- there was no way it was going to last. That was the final nail.

My thanks to everyone who helped in updating us on when the codes were online while they lasted.

[Jodou]

My only regret is that I didn't stack more.
^

Well ECA shot themselves in the foot with their 'trial' since stacking was inevitable once codes ran out as fast as they did. I encourage everyone to cancel their sub (and honestly, who hasn't by now) to send a clear message. Will be interesting to see what new benefits await, but I doubt they will be anything of worth.

[botticus]

I find it mind boggling (or deceptive) that the stacking issue, that has now been eliminated, is being used as a reason for eliminating the discount altogether. I mean, at worst, in its most hackish, they could just generate a few hundred thousand (million?) of the same class of code, and release x number of those to ECA at a time.

Even saying they've lost too much money to the stacking somehow implies that they'll make more money by not offering the discount than reinstating the 10% - I find this somewhat debatable.

[MrNEWZ]

Kind of angered my $15 subscription is worthless now... :-/

[rpnguyen]

one can only hope they bring it back with everything fixed, but i'm not holding my breath.

[Jaysonguy]

I find it mind boggling (or deceptive) that the stacking issue, that has now been eliminated, is being used as a reason for eliminating the discount altogether. I mean, at worst, in its most hackish, they could just generate a few hundred thousand (million?) of the same class of code, and release x number of those to ECA at a time.

Even saying they've lost too much money to the stacking somehow implies that they'll make more money by not offering the discount than reinstating the 10% - I find this somewhat debatable.

Amazon has the best prices for games
They now have Live and PSN games with some always cheaper then normal
They have free launch day delivery and money back for games
They have a boatload of preorder bonuses

They offer the best option for games and the ECA deal just made a great deal even better

I find it odd how people say that the free membership is what caused all this. Dirtbags who steal did all this.

[rpnguyen]

Amazon has the best prices for games
They now have Live and PSN games with some always cheaper then normal
They have free launch day delivery and money back for games
They have a boatload of preorder bonuses

They offer the best option for games and the ECA deal just made a great deal even better

I find it odd how people say that the free membership is what caused all this. Dirtbags who steal did all this.


you're right, but the free membership enabled many of the dirtbags, as you put it.

[basketbowler]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases.

[Lan_Zer0]

I find it mind boggling (or deceptive) that the stacking issue, that has now been eliminated, is being used as a reason for eliminating the discount altogether. I mean, at worst, in its most hackish, they could just generate a few hundred thousand (million?) of the same class of code, and release x number of those to ECA at a time.

It's probably just a handful (at most) of people working on this, and of those people, none of them have 'ECA Discount' as a top work priority.

[Stingercjc]

The ECA should offer those of us who paid a prorated refund if we choose to cancel because of the lack of Amazon discounts. I know that they state the discounts are subject to change, but we all known that everyone signed up for the Amazon one and it was the most prominently displayed discount on their site and the top "perk" for joining.

It'll never happen, of course, but I sure won't be renewing my membership. I don't blame Amazon for pulling the deal though. It was being abused. I do hope it makes a return some day, but when it does countless people will just start seeking out new ways to abuse it.

Sad to see it go, but I (barely) got my money's worth, so I am not too upset in the end.

[cheaphuck]

Everyone saw mayhem as soon as they made the program free yet they were still in denial on that site with mods feeding us BS. What a waste because to be honest the only reason I paid them $14 was to get that Amazon discount. Now its gone and I bet ECA has rubbed many wrong even if for awhile we benefited.

[Jonsoncao]

Kind of angered my $15 subscription is worthless now... :-/

same here...

[botticus]

They offer the best option for games and the ECA deal just made a great deal even better

In my view, it turned good deals into great deals, and in many cases, I wouldn't have bothered jumping on the good deal alone.

It's probably just a handful (at most) of people working on this, and of those people, none of them have 'ECA Discount' as a top work priority.
That or they don't really like the influx of people getting 10% for nothing - when it wasn't free, they could generally count on people ordering at least $150-$200 worth of merchandise from them at 10% off to make their membership fees back.

[Xenfernox]

glad i wasted 20$ to use this only once. Where can i cancel the auto renew so i don't pay for this worthless service again?

[Jodou]

I find it odd how people say that the free membership is what caused all this. Dirtbags who steal did all this.
It's cause and effect. The trial presented the opportunity, which is fact because the codes worked flawlessly for several months and had very short downtime. If you want to point the finger at stackers, fine, but don't blame the ocean for what the river brings.

[menikmati]

In my view, it turned good deals into great deals, and in many cases, I wouldn't have bothered jumping on the good deal alone.

Truth.

[basketbowler]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

[dualedge2]

It was probably the biggest mistake, on the part of ECA, to open up memberships as free. That should've been stopped ASAP and not let it run rampant, like it did.

[omega310]

I saved $16 on the MW2 hardened edition, $5 on Uncharted 2 and $10 on NBA 2K10 for a total of $31 in savings. I also used the free ECA code to sign up so I hate to see it go, but it was good while it lasted.

[mis0]

I don't even know why they opened up their membership for free.

So are all Amazon codes void now? I still have one remaining.

But yeah, you can't blame just CAGers here. People on Slickdeals, Fatwallet, etc were exploiting the glitch as much as everyone else.

[SpiderHulkThing]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

Well like many others, I used my student email to get $5 off the eca membership. So can I change my e-mail with eca, or would I have to do so with amazon.

This whole thing is a headache. Oh well, I guess if I can't get my amazon discount anymore, I'll just start getting from gamestop again.

You hear that amazon! Gamestop!

[wynams]

Way to be proud of being a thief

If you can't afford games perhaps you should have picked another hobby

Dirtbags who steal did all this.



methinks you are confusing ethics with the law

[SpiderHulkThing]

I don't even know why they opened up their membership for free.

So are all Amazon codes void now? I still have one remaining.

But yeah, you can't blame just CAGers here. People on Slickdeals, Fatwallet, etc were exploiting the glitch as much as everyone else.

So what was the stacking glitch anyway? Using the discount with other discounts or were people somehow able to use the eca discount multiple times on one product?

[metaly]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

It was doing this for me but stopped a few weeks ago. I'll have to check if my email addresses match up.

[n8rockerasu]

Amazon has the best prices for games
They now have Live and PSN games with some always cheaper then normal
They have free launch day delivery and money back for games
They have a boatload of preorder bonuses

They offer the best option for games and the ECA deal just made a great deal even better

I find it odd how people say that the free membership is what caused all this. Dirtbags who steal did all this.

I agree that the stacking sped up the process. But my question from the beginning was what amount of codes was Amazon comfortable with distributing. Sure, the quicker the codes are used, the more sales Amazon makes, BUT how much it's actually raising profits is difficult to determine. I never got the feeling that Amazon was comfortable just giving the ECA an endless supply of discount codes.

My feeling is that this is a partnership Amazon was reluctant to form in the first place, and these problems just showed them what a bad idea it was. I don't expect to see any prominent businesses linking up with ECA from here on out. The "new businesses" they're talking about adding will probably end up being Circuit City (aka Tigerdirect 2.0) or Barnes & Noble (aka We'll Give You 15% off by Charging 30% More!) As a paid subscriber of the ECA, until I hear something positive they actually accomplish for the gaming community, here's hoping they go down in flames.

[DCriminal]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

This is not happening for me. I just placed an order (I was waiting for the codes to return) and it didn't take anything off.

[Justin42]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

You must have codes still left over in your account, there never was any sort of link between the 2.

And I am sure emailing Amazon to ask them to apply the ECA 10% will end pretty soon once word trickles down as well.

[drmuerto]

Well, this sucks, but on the other hand, people should have known that abusing the system often leads to a loss of privileges. Here's hoping that the ECA is really doing the advocacy work that my membership fees were meant for in the first place.

[MrNEWZ]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

The Amazon e-mail I used was not the same as the ECA one. Logging in with the ECA e-mail (or creating an account with it) did not yield a discount.

[USB Cable]

I'm confused, can someone explain what was done wrong? O_o

Did people use a glitch to put multiple ECA codes on 1 order? OR Did people just keep using codes so that it's on their accounts but still only used 1 per order?

[doodofdoods]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases. Please let me know if anyone else is having this happen. Please before we bash Amazon and ECA we make sure that this isn't there middle ground to deal with those who stack codes.

it's just a glitch, other people have had it happen to them as well, in fact some people had stacked eca discounts stuck to their account.

[dubbfoolio]

to be honest I'm glad it's confirmed to be gone. It seemed inevitable anyway and I've been holding out on MW2 with some slim hope it would return. It was nice while it lasted. I feel bad for the folks who recently paid for memberships before it went free though.

[Stele]

I feel bad for the people that were stupid enough to think this was actually profitable for Amazon. You know who you are.

[Meehkaw]

Maybe Amazon took it away, because they saw the interest in it and now want to do it themselves. ;x Make the money off the memberships, while holding a large client base.

Was a sweet deal while it lasted, I more than made up enough money to cover the cost. GL to the ECA ppl and ty.

[leshrac55]

There's still B1G1 free on Fandango, right? That's pretty nice.

That isn't an ECA promotion... it's a Visa Signature one (it even still requires it according to their website, so it's kind of puzzling... seems like they're trying to pass off someone else's promotion as their own). I've been using the Fandango promotion with my Visa Signature card for the past several months without the aid of ECA.

As far as Amazon goes, this completely sucks.

[Warlock82]

Where are you guys seeing that it's definitely gone? All I see is the Amazon listing on the benefits page saying "This promotion is no longer available."

[Jodou]

That isn't an ECA promotion... it's a Visa Signature one (it even still requires it according to their website, so it's kind of puzzling... seems like they're trying to pass off someone else's promotion as their own). I've been using the Fandango promotion with my Visa Signature card for the past several months without the aid of ECA.

As far as Amazon goes, this completely sucks.
Yeah lol, for me they basically only brought it to my attention -- not offered it.

[Tomeeboy]

I think this is entirely the ECA's fault for poor management of great perk that should have been better protected. They continually made it possible for people to screw Amazon over with this promotion, particularly by being stupid and offering free membership to pretty much anyone on Earth. Even before that, people could generate unlimited codes and sell them or give them away (they finally restricted it to one per day, but it was way too late by then).

When the 10% discount was worked out with Amazon originally, I'm sure Amazon was thinking that the ECA's membership numbers would remain somewhat limited because of the $20 membership fee, so there probably wasn't a huge worry about the discounts getting out of hand. Things sure went to hell the moment they offered free membership and opened the flood gates, though.

[cdul]

Sad to see it gone. I was definitely one of those guys who would never have bought something unless if it was Gold Boxed + ECA'd. While I did purchase my membership at $15 close to when it first came out, I definitely made my money back plus a lot more. Luckily, I did preorder a bunch of stuff ahead of time.

[wampa8jedi]

Enjoyed it while it lasted... no intention to ever be involved with the ECA again unless it returns.

[The Long Haired Bard]

I think it's hilarious people are trying to say that the free memberships were the issue and not the people stacking 3 or 4 codes. That's some dedicated denial right there.:applause:

[Jodou]

I think this is entirely the ECA's fault for poor management of great perk that should have been better protected. They continually made it possible for people to screw Amazon over with this promotion, particularly by being stupid and offering free membership to pretty much anyone on Earth. Even before that, people could generate unlimited codes and sell them or give them away (they finally restricted it to one per day, but it was way too late by then).

When the 10% discount was worked out with Amazon originally, I'm sure Amazon was thinking that the ECA's membership numbers would remain somewhat limited because of the $20 membership fee, so there probably wasn't a huge worry about the discounts getting out of hand. Things sure went to hell the moment they offered free membership and opened the flood gates, though.Pretty much exactly what I said once free trials began. I even wrote ECA exposing their folly, but here we are today with them still handing out free trials. I'm taking bets on how long before the trial just magically ends.

Now that they've milked the codes and the few weeks of uncertainty to increase their subscription base, I suspect it will end.

[Jodou]

I think it's hilarious people are trying to say that the free memberships were the issue and not the people stacking 3 or 4 codes. That's some dedicated denial right there.:applause:
Pot. Kettle.

[bojay1997]

I'm wondering why we aren't hearing from all the holier-than-thou posters that frequently responded to complaints about the codes being down with arguments that it really wasn't about the codes for them and that they loved the work ECA was doing? Are all of them going to keep paying to belong to ECA now that the membership is worthless?

[tears2040]

THe only reason I'm disappointed is for not abusing it when I had the chance ........ Had I known these codes would have gone under I would have bought more :cry:

[SimaYi]

I'm hoping for some sort of Gamers Club program direct from Amazon. Instead of dealing with promo codes they could just subtract 10% off the current price via log in (if thats possible).

But I hope the upcoming ECA benefits make it worth it, I don't want to cancel but might given that i'll forget about auto-renew in 8-9 months time.

[bojay1997]

I feel bad for the people that were stupid enough to think this was actually profitable for Amazon. You know who you are.

You're right, people abusing the system to get 30% off already discounted games was not a profitable model. 10% off games is and was a profitable model, however. In fact, Amazon had the biggest quarter in their history, so your theories about 10% off games damaging their bottom line has been pretty conclusively shown to be bogus.

[major morgan]

I think it's hilarious people are trying to say that the free memberships were the issue and not the people stacking 3 or 4 codes. That's some dedicated denial right there.:applause:

I think most of them are just saying that there was a cause and effect of the free memberships.

1. Before memberships were free, the codes did not run out very quickly. When they did, they were up again very shortly.
2. Free memberships created more demand for the 10% codes. People began "hoarding" the codes and saving them in order to not be caught without one when codes ran out. Which then started taking days to replenish.
3. All the saved codes and the re-issue of different codes meant that people were holding onto different batches of codes; J-codes, L-codes, 66-codes.
4. Some people that decided to cancel existing orders go back and thought they needed to apply a new code, only then noticed the old code wasn't canceled and that the new code "stacked" onto the old one.
5. Those people report what happened to them and all hell breaks loose.
6. Many people cancel their older orders that are still open so they can stack.
7. Amazon gets pissed and cans the promotion.

So yes the free membership didn't directly cause this to end, but it sure did play a big part in it happening.

[no_exit]

I joined ECA in early April and the only issue was the codes running out periodically. After a few days, Amazon would provide new codes and everything would be good again. Everything was great through the Spring and the Summer. Then in September the the free memberships started and everything went to hell.

The stacking may have never happened if it wasn't for the free memberships. Once that started and the SD and FW masses got their hands in the mix, it was doomed.

[xycury]

I think it's hilarious people are trying to say that the free memberships were the issue and not the people stacking 3 or 4 codes. That's some dedicated denial right there.:applause:

Not denial, just the begining of the snowball to avalanche.

Just compare it like that.

Amazon gives ECA 100 codes... they run out quickly because of muliple codes per click.
Amazon gives more codes that stack, along with ECA giving out free subs.
Free Subs = more dbags, more dbags mean more stacking with codes running out for a 3rd and 4th.
Ultimately alot of freeloaders are Triple stacking...

Before it was give away, there were only a handful of people affording the $20/$15 price.

This would be the same way as Gamestop giving away Edge cards... or the massive amount of people getting it for $2, that was shut down.... so is Amazon shutting down the codes.

It's the stacking that Amazon flagged to end it all, but it's definately the freeloaders that ultimately ruined it because of the running out of codes, opening up to abuse because that's when the stacking started.

Series of unfortunate events, all equally bad, but all starting with the Freeloaders.

[strongpimphand]

Oh boo hoo!

Look - it's the internet. Everyone tries to abuse everyone. That's just how it is.

Amazon got tired of seeing their games and accessories being horribly discounted. That's their money that they're losing. And no, they obviously didn't benefit from it. There are peopel who THINK they know how business works and think that if you sell the lowest price you'll get more customers and that its better for your business.

Wrong! Amazon would have probably liked this if it wasn't stackable. Amazon would have probably allowed this if customers bought additional items along with this, or bought prime memberships to get exclusive codes from Amazon (not getting codes for signing up for FREE at some other website)

What did Amazon really gain? Nothing! What did they lose? Money. Everyone already knows the margins for selling retail games are already low. This isn't like selling a fridge or jewelry. Only so much money you can really make and let's be honest - Amazon already has low prices with free shipping and no taxes in most states. Taking 5+ dollars off in addition and then trying to get MORE discounts on top of those discounts is just exploitation that was just ended.

[tanis]

Time to call the credit card company to have the charges reversed. Ahhh well....

[mietha]

I'm hoping for some sort of Gamers Club program direct from Amazon. Instead of dealing with promo codes they could just subtract 10% off the current price via log in (if thats possible).



It's certainly possible. They've previously done it with a year-long discount promo on Blu Rays/HD DVDs which started in the fall of '06.

[Jodou]

Lol, remember when they limited codes to 24 hours in a dire attempt to stop hoarding? That took all of a day before people figured out you could delete the cookie and generate a new code infinitely again.

[ViolentLee]

This had to be an issue of last-straw for Amazon. I'm sure they gave ECA codes in good faith, then the free membership caused ECA to ask Amazon for exponentially more codes. I assume the stacking was when Amazon said, "Oh HELLL NO!" and pulled the plug permanently.

ECA wanted more members, and they overloaded the golden goose to get them. I'm sure they're hoping we forget about our memberships or hold out for other discounts so they can brag about their membership numbers and hope for re-subscription fees in the next year.

What's ECA to a big company like Amazon? It's a mosquito they got tired of sucking on them, so they swatted it. Can't say I wouldn't have done the same. I'll still shop at Amazon, but probably won't deal with ECA again. I think I made my membership cost up from the discounts, otherwise I'd be more pissed.

[Neo-Nut]

Why can't amazon just figure out who stacked these coupons and just charge them? They should be able to do that and just get the 10% discount back. I signed up for the eca just for this and I didn't get to use it once!

[slickkill77]

Ehhh... I paid for a membership when they first became available. I got my moneys worth. The ECA was dumb for handing out free memberships. Pretty piss poor management, and these are the people fighting for our gaming rights. They would have been better off offering a discount or something. It was only a $15/$20 membership as it is. The ECA had nothing to gain from giving out memberships.


To the above poster. Amazon doesn't want to piss people off by canceling their orders. Thats why they haven't and won't cancel them. And how would that get the codes back? They don't want to get screwed over again so they may come up with a solution of their own, independent from the ECA.

[catbigred]

@ViolentLee:
You got it exactly right. If they don't get a deal struck with Amazon by Christmas I'm done with the service. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have something by Black Friday... YEAH RIGHT!

[Bucknut]

Why can't amazon just figure out who stacked these coupons and just charge them? They should be able to do that and just get the 10% discount back. I signed up for the eca just for this and I didn't get to use it once!

It's not worth the hassle to them.

[beerme]

Are the "J" codes (or whatever the last code was) still working?

[turls]

If everybody just bought Amazon stock while you were waiting for the ECA codes to come back you could have paid for discounts for quite a while. Up over 25% in the last few days. They don't need ECA discounts maybe, or maybe their great 3Q numbers had something to do with ECA?

[mywhitenoise]

Why can't amazon just figure out who stacked these coupons and just charge them? They should be able to do that and just get the 10% discount back. I signed up for the eca just for this and I didn't get to use it once!


If you "signed up" for it and never used it once, I take it you didn't pay the original $20 membership. If that's the case, what are you complaining about?

[Loonknight]

Sad to see it go, but I understand why Amazon pulled it. Had a good run with the discount but I don't see any point staying with ECA, especially since I paid for my subscription way back when, without that particular carrot on a stick available.

[highxflyer]

Quite disappointed that I never got to take advantage of the codes because people had to stack them. The only good discount for being a member was Amazon. With Amazon gone, well I have no use for their organization now and I won't renew.

[crunchewy]

I really don't buy the blame-the-stackers argument. Stacking was an issue, but it's unclear to me why it ever had to be. Couldn't they have either not "expired" the codes and not had different batches, which seems to me would fix it, or actually *expired* the codes?!!! If the codes were expired, why was anyone able to use them? They hadn't really expired anything. It just seems like they have a really dopey system in place. That's where the blame should lay.

[slickkill77]

No matter what you say, people will always blame the stackers.

[genfuyung]

Really wanted to use this on a steering wheel when gt5 came out. Lame.

[chuckywang]

I hope that Amazon does something like what Circuit City did when they were in business. Circuit City had a video game program that if you signed up (for a fee), you get 10% off all video games and accessories.

[Pyloric]

Lame. I actually payed to be an ECA member, and got to use it twice. I want a refund.

[argyle]

Sucks, but it was a good run for me. I easily made my $15 back (heck, I got that back just off of the Tekken 6 bundle that shipped today) and I still have 15+ preorders w/ the coupon applied, stretching well into next year (and possibly the year after that).

And another deal will come along soon enough, from somewhere - it always does. ;)

[eugaet]

No matter what you say, people will always blame someone else.There, fixed that for you. ;)

[fatpug]

Don't worry... Gypsyfly said the code will be back after the holiday. :)

[Renaissance 2K]

I hope that Amazon does something like what Circuit City did when they were in business. Circuit City had a video game program that if you signed up (for a fee), you get 10% off all video games and accessories.
Yup, and that worked out pretty well for them.

...Oh wait.

[theloserboy]

In a sense, I think its better knowing we're not going to get the discount back anytime soon, if at all. Now i can just pre-order without worrying about this. Oh well, back to ebay bux and bing cashback.

[eau]

Don't worry... Gypsyfly said the code will be back after the holiday. :)
She also said the codes would be back the following week 2 weeks ago :roll:

[MrNEWZ]

She also said the codes would be back the following week 2 weeks ago :roll:

This.

[Afflicted]

I guess I'm thinking that they don't want to bring them back till next year... why give even bigger discounts than they are probably planning for black friday/etc...

I'm betting we see the video game lightning deals come back as we get closer to Christmas and I'm sure that they know that the code comes off the original price and not the lightning deal one. So I can fully understand why they wouldn't want them during the holidays.

[Killrig]

She also said the codes would be back the following week 2 weeks ago :roll:

She strikes me as a volunteer. I don't think she's onto anything at all. We seem to be ahead of her every time.

[coolsteel]

I'm bummed that they got rid of it completely for now but I can't cry about it really, I ordered enough to make back my initial membership fee and a heck of a lot more, so thems the breaks.

[chuckywang]

Yup, and that worked out pretty well for them.

...Oh wait.

Are you really saying the Circuit City video game club was the reason they went out of business?

[drock]

It was good while it lasted. This thread belongs in the graveyard though.

[dizee]

thanks to all the people who abused the system and stacked it multiple times. hope it was worth it.

[John Hyperion]

Weak. I paid for a membership, never stacked and didn't manage to make the membership "pay for itself."

[ViolentLee]

Don't worry... Gypsyfly said the code will be back after the holiday. :)
I laughed at this, so I'm hoping it was a joke.

[dizee]

Weak. I paid for a membership, never stacked and didn't manage to make the membership "pay for itself."

See if you can get a refund. If they dont refund you, call your CC company and file a chargeback.

[Porksta]

thanks to all the people who abused the system and stacked it multiple times. hope it was worth it.

Saved me $30 on MW2 PE, so yes it was.

[Muthafodder]

I think it's safe to say that emailing / calling Amazon and alerting them to stacking by ASKING THEM TO DO IT trumped this.....way to ruin a great thing.

The net effect of a 10% off for many years would have far out weighed the abused short term gain.

I don't blame them one bit...not one bit.

[caltab]

I still don't understand why Amazon used an amateurish third party in the first place, they should just have their own edge card like gamestop.

[shrike4242]

Since this isn't a current on-going deal, this is being moved to Deal/Shopping Discussions.

[Muthafodder]

I still don't understand why Amazon used an amateurish third party in the first play, they should just have there own edge card like gamestop.


I think after this fiasco and the amount of traffic this garnered...this is a real possibility.

I'd pay $20 to Amazon for 10% off game purchases indefinitely. Hell, make it $40 for the ability to receive games on release day.

Surely their in-house team would lock it down tenfold.

[buckythekat]

well once the ECA did that free subscription gimmick it was pretty obvious this was gonna happen eventually

how exactly do we disable auto-renew with the ECA? I made up my member fee and then some so I'm not pissed or anything but I have no plans to pay again especially after their recent behavior about everything

[shrike4242]

Here's a novel idea. How about we keep the discussion civil for a change?

[kilm]

how exactly do we disable auto-renew with the ECA? I made up my member fee and then some so I'm not pissed or anything but I have no plans to pay again especially after their recent behavior about everything

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

[Muthafodder]

well once the ECA did that free subscription gimmick it was pretty obvious this was gonna happen eventually

Are you oblivious, or just choose to disown reality???

Twice now ECA has stated that the codes were pulled because of STACKING...they have also publicly stated it WAS NOT DUE TO FREE MEMBERS...people had the ability to stack because they were using codes that were only available BEFORE the free membership.

[Reira]

I paid the full $20 even though I was a student because I could never get the confirmation e-mail sent to my .edu account. I've gotten my money's worth, but like a lot of people mentioned, with ECA, I didn't feel too bad about impulse purchases & preorders with an extra 10%.

But yeah, not unexpected. What should have been a members-only organization for those who paid the $15-20 fee suddenly turned into a free-for-all. I just wish they would have said from the beginning of October the benefit was being terminated instead of "oh, it's definitely coming back."

Oh, and an Amazon gamers club would be awesome. Along with a blu-ray club.

[buckythekat]

Twice now ECA has stated that the codes were pulled because of STACKING...they have also publicly stated it WAS NOT DUE TO FREE MEMBERS...people stacking with codes that were only available BEFORE the free membership.

do you seriously believe if it did have something to do with the massive influx of free new members (which in turn definitely helped lead to the new series of codes being generated that ended up being stackable) the ECA would honestly tell you oops sorry we fucked up? :roll:

if so I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, it has a really nice scenic view too

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

ah thanks, that doesn't cancel your membership right away though right?

in their forums they make it sound like it does

[chakan]

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

You can't simply disable auto-renewal. Going through these steps will also cancel your current membership. I'm emailing myself in the future a week before my renewal date, reminding myself to cancel then.

http://www.futureme.org/

[Muthafodder]

Stacking must be a hard concept to grasp...

Simplest version I can think of:

Stacking =/= Free Members

[Jodou]

Are you oblivious, or just choose to disown reality???

Twice now ECA has stated that the codes were pulled because of STACKING...they have also publicly stated it WAS NOT DUE TO FREE MEMBERS...people had the ability to stack because they were using codes that were only available BEFORE the free membership.
Stop the presses! We should believe everything ECA tells us!

[bigdaddybruce44]

Good job stacking, guys. I hope the extra $5 or $10 you saved on a game was worth it. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

And I love that the stackers keep pointing at the free subs as the reason this went away. The free sub offer was available for awhile before Amazon pulled the codes. Stop making excuses. You blew it for everyone.

[Vinny]

I just saw this... needless to say, I'm not too happy since about it since I made a lot of purchases simply because I got the 10% off. I'm not sure what other merchants they're working with but it's unlikely that I'll use ECA anymore.

Amazon's prices are almost always the lowest... the 10% extra just sweetened the deal so I ended up ordering stuff I normally wouldn't. I can't think of any other retailer where 10% off would be worth it... that would only bring their prices on the same level as Amazon's so it's kinda pointless.

And I actually paid for my subscription, so I'm extra peeved about that. I did save a ton of money, more than enough to make up the $15 I paid but it still seems unfair that those of us who didn't abuse the codes are being screwed over.

[fatpug]

Are you oblivious, or just choose to disown reality???

Twice now ECA has stated that the codes were pulled because of STACKING...they have also publicly stated it WAS NOT DUE TO FREE MEMBERS...people had the ability to stack because they were using codes that were only available BEFORE the free membership.

ECA said a lot of things... I still believe giving free memberships killed the program. Why should Amazon offer 10% off to everyone that reads internet deal sites.

[Jodou]

You can't simply disable auto-renewal. Going through these steps will also cancel your current membership. I'm emailing myself in the future a week before my renewal date, reminding myself to cancel then.

http://www.futureme.org/
Then why does it say in bold letters 'Recurring Fee Has Been Canceled' once you click cancel? I mean, you could be 100% correct and if they try to charge me next year, I'll simply do a chargeback and possibly pursue legal action.

This is all, of course, entertaining the thought they will even be around in a year.

[Muthafodder]

Stop the presses! We should believe everything ECA tells us!


Well, for starters, I have no reason to disbelieve them.

Did they take away your candy and turn you into a distrustful twit?

[y2jasper]

I hope that Amazon does something like what Circuit City did when they were in business. Circuit City had a video game program that if you signed up (for a fee), you get 10% off all video games and accessories.

i read this and just had to point out CC didn't do this right either (worked their for 4 years). they sent you a membership card you were supposed to use when making a purchase...but the barcode on the cards never worked. so we taped working barcodes next to the registers (atleast in my store) and scanned those anytime someone had their card...or anytime any of us or our friends wanted to buy a game as well.

[buckythekat]

Good job stacking, guys. I hope the extra $5 or $10 you saved on a game was worth it. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

And I love that the stackers keep pointing at the free subs as the reason this went away. The free sub offer was available for awhile before Amazon pulled the codes. Stop making excuses. You blew it for everyone.

available for a while? it was maybe 2-3 weeks before the codes went away altogether and even before that they ran out at least twice after the free subs started which was dramatically quicker than they had ever run out before the free subs started

oh and I like how you just accuse everyone who blames the free subs as being stackers

the only times I had stacked was when Amazon made me given they stacked codes to your account if you had canceled and older order, I never applied another code to an existing order that already had a 10% applied but why let facts get in the way?

edit:
Well, for starters, I have no reason to disbelieve them.

Did they take away your candy and turn you into a distrustful twit?

maybe having grown up in D.C. made me cynical but I take most everything an organization/government/business/etc. says "officially" with a grain of salt

[Jodou]

Good job stacking, guys. I hope the extra $5 or $10 you saved on a game was worth it. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

And I love that the stackers keep pointing at the free subs as the reason this went away. The free sub offer was available for awhile before Amazon pulled the codes. Stop making excuses. You blew it for everyone.
A) some of us saved hundreds, not some measly $5 rofl.
B) Amazon's slow reaction time is not a valid argument.

[Jodou]

Well, for starters, I have no reason to disbelieve them.

Did they take away your candy and turn you into a distrustful twit?
And the evidence for your claim? None.

Until Amazon publicly states the reasoning, we have nothing to go on other than word of mouth and speculation. No, it's not that I don't trust them, it's that they've not proven otherwise.

[Jodou]

...or anytime any of us or our friends wanted to buy a game as well.
Oh, that's quite devious; will you be my friend? :twisted:

[silentspork]

Good job stacking, guys. I hope the extra $5 or $10 you saved on a game was worth it. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

And I love that the stackers keep pointing at the free subs as the reason this went away. The free sub offer was available for awhile before Amazon pulled the codes. Stop making excuses. You blew it for everyone.
What is ironic about the whole thing is that the stackers will have saved themselves some money now but will end up paying more in the long run because codes aren't available anymore. Hope it was worth it!

[Muthafodder]

Until Amazon publicly states the reasoning, we have nothing to go on other than word of mouth and speculation. No, it's not that I don't trust them, it's that they've not proven otherwise.

Amazon doesn't need to extol or justify their stance.

My rationalization as well as other sane individuals would lead to the assumption that an organization that wants to be partners with a large online store-front wouldn't really throw Amazon under the bus so-to-speak.

They publicly stated they were in conference calls with Amazon to resolve the 'stacking' issue. I don't think it would have been wise to bring light to the stacking issue if it weren't true. How would you react if you were the said large online company and an organization were blaming you for an IT glitch. ECA would've been ignorant to have done so...they didn't...

The inference is crystal clear.

Trying to reason with unreasonable strangers on the internet is a battle in futility. I have to constantly remind myself that children and challenged adults also have access to the internet.

[Jodou]

Amazon doesn't need to extol or justify their stance.

My rationalization as well as other sane individuals would lead to the assumption that an organization that wants to be partners with a large online store-front wouldn't really throw Amazon under the bus so-to-speak.

They publicly stated they were in conference calls with Amazon to resolve the 'stacking' issue. I don't think it would have been wise to bring light to the stacking issue if it weren't true. How would you react if you were the said large online company and an organization were blaming you for an IT glitch. ECA would've been ignorant to have done so...they didn't...

The inference is crystal clear.

Trying to reason with unreasonable strangers on the internet is a battle in futility. I have to constantly remind myself that children and challenged adults also have access to the internet.Nobody said Amazon has to nor that you couldn't speculate. I do draw the line when opinions are pushed as fact, though.

[Stele]

You're right, people abusing the system to get 30% off already discounted games was not a profitable model. 10% off games is and was a profitable model, however. In fact, Amazon had the biggest quarter in their history, so your theories about 10% off games damaging their bottom line has been pretty conclusively shown to be bogus.
Because "bojay1997" said so? You have a serious problem with logical fallacies. Because A happened does not mean B caused it if it's convenient for your argument. If you even read Amazon's press release, videogames wasn't even mentioned when they did some simplistic segment breakdown. Not saying it's not one of Amazon's main segments, but I very doubt that was the cause for the 3Q results. And honestly, how many people do you really think had the foresight to have all 3 codes during the week or so it was available for stacking? Inconsequential number. Even 2 stacks I think was not that relevant. An extra couple...tens of thousands, maybe hundred of thousands of new members signing up just to get their free 10% for no reason? I don't think neither the ECA nor Amazon anticipated how viral the internet was in spreading free stuff information. If Amazon wanted to give everyone in the world 10% off on their videogames inventory, they would just do that and not originally through a somewhat more restrictive ECA membership.

[J7.]

Thanks so much to all the stackers! People being too fucking greedy buying way more shit than they need, probably won't even play most of it or even before they can get it cheaper anyways. Had to ruin it for everyone as fucking usual. And they continue to go around and joke about how they stacked trying to rub it in the faces of anyone upset with them and acting like they did nothing wrong.

[buckythekat]

Thanks so much to all the stackers! People being too fucking greedy buying way more shit than they need, probably won't even play most of it or even before they can get it cheaper anyways. Had to ruin it for everyone as fucking usual. And they continue to go around and joke about how they stacked trying to rub it in the faces of anyone upset with them and acting like they did nothing wrong.

are we posting in two different threads? :???:

[ViolentLee]

Amazon doesn't need to extol or justify their stance.

My rationalization as well as other sane individuals would lead to the assumption that an organization that wants to be partners with a large online store-front wouldn't really throw Amazon under the bus so-to-speak.

They publicly stated they were in conference calls with Amazon to resolve the 'stacking' issue. I don't think it would have been wise to bring light to the stacking issue if it weren't true. How would you react if you were the said large online company and an organization were blaming you for an IT glitch. ECA would've been ignorant to have done so...they didn't...

The inference is crystal clear.

Trying to reason with unreasonable strangers on the internet is a battle in futility. I have to constantly remind myself that children and challenged adults also have access to the internet.

Will you be happier if we all just admit that you're the smartest person on the entire internet? You seem to be putting forth a lot of effort to make sure we all know your opinion is the one true fact.

[slidecage]

(I know this probably isn't the best place/way to post this but I don't know how many people check deal discussions/graveyard/etc-- maybe this should be a closed sticky for a week or two?) Please don't turn this into a flame war...

Latest update, direct from the ECA:
Amazon has decided to suspend their discount offering for the time being. The exploit in the coupons was/is too large a detractor until a new solution can be determined.

Separately, several new merchant partners will be coming online this and next week with discounts and special promotions that they'd like to offer members.


ummmm called this weeks ago when the discounts first disappeared.... Amazon probally wants nothing to do with ECA after the entire GI free account (no company is going to give all of these people 10% free on games) .... ECA will make up a story and blame it all on amazon (what they did ) amazon will never come back to ECA


Months ago ECA probally went to amazon and amazon goes how many people you have... ECA goes less then 10,000 .... Amazon thinks to sell well it could help both of us out and since people are PAYING To access ECA there wont be many people using the codes... Then all of a sudden BOOM that less then 10,000 = 50,000 + amazon goes, no way in hell we are going to issue that many codes and that you allowed stacking that you mostly #$#$# us over... We dont need you, eca needs us,,,, Good bye.

Eca makes up a story about how this is all amazon fault so the people will say its amazon fault and ECA can do no wrong.

sorry but like i said as soon as the codes disappered.. amazon is long gone and eca mostly just #$#$# everyone over

i sort of find it FUnny that if amazon say NO to the codes then whey do the old codes Still work..... More like amazon said NO MORE NEW CODES and ECA is making this entire story up

if all codes would be removed Old codes would not be still working...

[ViolentLee]

slidecage, I haven't always agreed with you, but your hypothesis is a good one. Very similar to what I think happened.

[dcm1602]

Members of ECA still get 10% off. If your Amazon account email and Eca email are the same they automatically deduct 10% from the purchase price. At least that is what it is doing with my purchases.


Definitely not working for me

[newlu]

ummmm called this weeks ago when the discounts first disappeared.... Amazon probally wants nothing to do with ECA after the entire GI free account (no company is going to give all of these people 10% free on games) .... ECA will make up a story and blame it all on amazon (what they did ) amazon will never come back to ECA


True
ECA is fucking retarded.

[fatpug]

My request has been sent to TheECA for a refund. I don't expect a reply but I think it is important they understand what they did was not right. Free memberships killed the only benefits that many people used.

[Afflicted]

course it could have had a bit to do with the fact that the free membership code was given out in GI... you know the magazine that's pushed by gamestop to go with their edge card...

all in all I think people are seriously overreacting over 10%... :roll:

as for people stacking... well once it hit then most people knew it was going to die or at least end in the way that it had worked in the past... look at all the other stacking coupons in the past... um WB comes to mind... just a month or so ago when people could stack like 5 coupons to get 9 blurays for roughly 5 bucks each... it died a quick death...

if it would have been before the free accounts maybe not cause not a lot of people would have taken advantage of it... but with all the free ones out there was definately going to change the program...

[The Chop Suey]

wow whoever fucked this up for everyone fuck you

[slidecage]

My request has been sent to TheECA for a refund. I don't expect a reply but I think it is important they understand what they did was not right. Free memberships killed the only benefits that many people used.

they will not send you a refund.. They might offer you a prize pack what you will Never see... I emailed them when the free GI thing first hit.... I got a nice email back saying blah blah blah but we will give you a prize pack for your troubles... No prize pack ever showed.. emailed them again and they never emailed me back...

now if they would replace the amazon code with a 15% off new games at gamestop then all would be forgiven (doubt they will


another thing i do not like is

Separately, several new merchant partners will be coming online this and next week with discounts and special promotions that they'd like to offer members.


if they had new partners coming why wouldnt they give names instead of saying we have these coming... to me that sounds like yea they are in talk with getting discounts but nothing has been worked out

[AwRy108]

Nice work everyone! You know who you are.

This.

[Rouzhokuu]

Thanks, stackers!

Please, go die in a fire. :)

[confoosious]

I find it mind boggling (or deceptive) that the stacking issue, that has now been eliminated, is being used as a reason for eliminating the discount altogether. I mean, at worst, in its most hackish, they could just generate a few hundred thousand (million?) of the same class of code, and release x number of those to ECA at a time.

Even saying they've lost too much money to the stacking somehow implies that they'll make more money by not offering the discount than reinstating the 10% - I find this somewhat debatable.

Are you a financial analyst at amazon? Because unless you are, I find it debatable whether you know a single thing about their profits. Empirical evidence suggests that the 10% (with or without stacking) wasn't helping their bottom line so they killed it. Hopefully not forever.


Confoosious I believe you were one of those so-called stackers. Right?
I guess you could say I told you so.

Thanks a lot stacking fools :booty:

Nope. I have never knowingly stacked. I found out about it when I cancelled one pre-order and had the discount apply twice to my Ghostbusters Slimer Edition.

Look folks, I've come to realize that there's no point yelling at the stackers like Jodou. They will always justify in their little mind why it was ok for them to stack and how this is Amazon/ECA's fault. It's never THEIR fault. You can tell them to fuck themselves but it won't make a difference. The next time something is to be exploited, they'll be first in line to exploit it and mock you for not being smart enough to do it yourself.

[caltab]

Amazon seems to have had a huge increase in business b/c of the codes, can't believe they'd just walk away from that if it was at all profitable for them because of a glitch that can be fixed. Amazon is a huge corporation that desires one things: profit. It's feelings cannot be hurt by exploiters. It cant hold a grudge. If the 10 percent codes were profitable they'd implement them again. The way they were doing it before was broken and needed to be fixed regardless of exploiters. Maybe their just gonna see how their holiday sales are without the 10 percent codes and maybe they will come back in another form. Regardless I think all the finger pointing is missing the bigger picture, that Amazon has one concern-their bottom line. If they codes are profitable and they want the increased business an extra 10 percent off brings them they will find an exploit free way to do so.

Also, I wonder if the ECA was paying Amazon for the codes in some form. If they were not, maybe Amazon no longer liked the fact that a 3rd party was collecting money for distributing codes. I know the ECA has other stated purposes, but realistically for the vast majority of members, it served one purpose, to buy codes.

[USB Cable]

I think I'm the last person here that's still confused lol. What teh Bacon was done wrong!?!? Were people using multiple ECA codes on 1 order somehow? or Was putting multiple codes on a account for future use the problem? :whee:

[sadikyo]

Wow - I can't believe I read all 9 pages of this thread - but it is really entertaining!

[DefeatUForever]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm receiving an automatic 10% off for any game in my cart.

btw I was a paid ECA member.

[Corvin]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm receiving an automatic 10% off for any game in my cart.

btw I was a paid ECA member.

I paid and I'm seeing no such discount.

[hernando57]

I didnt pay, but I am also getting 10% off, and didnt have any codes left applied to my account.

[y2jasper]

see blaming the stackers for singlehandedly ruining the deal doesn't make sense for atleast 2 reasons:

1) amazon would have figured out the problem eventually anyway? do you guys seriously think amazon would have never realized it with all the accidental stacks that happened (and would have happened in the future)? admittedly i'm sure it would have happened later instead of now, but they would have gone through the same process of shutting it down while they work on it.

2) if amazons only problem with the codes was stacking then they could have easily fixed the problem..and they actually did, since only J codes have been working for over a week. problem solved.

personally i think amazon decided on one of the following:

1) that they didn't want to give the discount to so many members, and possibly want to have their own discount program. which would be cool.

2) they decided that they really don't need the discount to entice buyers in the next few months since they will have an increase in sales anyway. i mean lately amazon has been matching competitors prices and sales left and right. is it a coincidence that the ECA codes were around during the spring and summer, when there are weaker game sales? maybe maybe not. but this might mean that they will have the program again after the holidays.

3) they had some other dispute with ECA and this was a final straw.

i think that option 2 is probably the most likely one. the only reason to think this was solely the fault of stacking is if you think that the problem wasn't fixable (which they already fixed) or Amazon decided that it would punish everyone for what a select few did....by not actually cancelling the orders that were made. not really the kind of actions a major retailer does with something that is profitable to them.

so before you curse out people, maybe think of the bigger picture first.

[io]

2) if amazons only problem with the codes was stacking then they could have easily fixed the problem..and they actually did, since only J codes have been working for over a week. problem solved.


This is what I've been saying all along. They DID fix the problem about 2 weeks ago. All they had to do was bring them back as 'J' codes since the stacking issue was over and done with (or expire those as well and bring out a new batch and stick with it instead of changing the codes all the time - the stacking was entirely Amazon's fault for coming up with all these different batches that acted like independent promos). It is an utter BS reason that they cancelled the program because of stacking. They didn't want it around for other reasons (what they are I have no idea but we can speculate on all sorts of reasons). Either ECA is BSing us about the real reason or Amazon is BSing them.

[Despacio]

Well I'd complain about getting my $15 bucks back, but I saved A LOT of money with this and have games pre-ordered with ECA codes up to next year. Thank you ECA, it was fun while it lasted. If you didn't pay for the ECA membership you have no place to complain. I think the mistake was making the membership free, no doubt thousands jumped on that, that was a huge mistake.

It would be nice if they could get 10% to apply to specific membership only instead of this code generating business.

[buckythekat]

This is what I've been saying all along. They DID fix the problem about 2 weeks ago. All they had to do was bring them back as 'J' codes since the stacking issue was over and done with (or expire those as well and bring out a new batch and stick with it instead of changing the codes all the time - the stacking was entirely Amazon's fault for coming up with all these different batches that acted like independent promos). It is an utter BS reason that they cancelled the program because of stacking. They didn't want it around for other reasons (what they are I have no idea but we can speculate on all sorts of reasons). Either ECA is BSing us about the real reason or Amazon is BSing them.

I'm more inclined to believe the ECA is BSing us since after all they have much more to lose

it's not like we'll stop shopping at Amazon since they still overall have the best deals and what would Amazon have to gain by BSing the ECA? it's not like they have anything to lose to them

[DariusWIND]

I'm more inclined to believe the ECA is BSing us since after all they have much more to lose

it's not like we'll stop shopping at Amazon since they still overall have the best deals and what would Amazon have to gain by BSing the ECA? it's not like they have anything to lose to them

I have, I live in Washington so I get charged 9.5% sales tax, ECA balanced it out for me. Since I lost that I've been doing a lot more shopping over at Newegg, which doesn't charge sales tax in my state. Still fun while it lasted though, and I did save a lot of money with it.

[io]

I dunno, the difference for me is splurging on some new games that I wouldn't have bought otherwise (though the trade-in program helped more than the ECA discount since I had trade credit plus things like the $30 promo codes). Now I'll go back to holding off on most new games and waiting for used copies via B2G1 at GS like I did before (and more often than not simply waiting out price drops since I can't play all this new stuff immediately anyway).

I have a lot of credit left at Amazon from the trade-in promo but I'll probably end up spending that on non-gaming stuff and then going back to ignoring them (for the most part except for the occasional DotD and BF deal) like I did before. I have a lot of preorders in the pipeline though that I used the $30 credits on (plus ECA discount of course) - stuff that I won't get for a long time like FF XIII so I'll continue to get packages from Amazon for a long time even if I don't spend another cent there ;).

In any case, I got my $15 worth out of ECA but they can be damn sure I won't be renewing unless the Amazon discount comes back.

[J7.]

Maybe Amazon told ECA to indicate the promo is no longer available because they're now sick of getting flooded with emails about people asking for them to apply the 10% manually? What's up with the conference call that is supposed to be occuring... You gotta love the people who kissed gypsyfly's ass when she commented here and are now claiming she made these extravagant lies. Most of em were stackers too :roll:. In the end I probably broke even on this whole goddamn fiasco.

[DefeatUForever]

Hey I just place an order with my 10% discount and I went and added another game to my cart to see if it was still in there and the 10% is still there. I have no explanation for why it is but I'm not going to complain especially since I paid 20 bucks for membership(even though I have a savings of way over 60 bucks)

[prateeko]

Very sad to see this go away. Looks like I'll be pre-ordering less now...

[buckythekat]

Maybe Amazon told ECA to indicate the promo is no longer available because they're now sick of getting flooded with emails about people asking for them to apply the 10% manually? What's up with the conference call that is supposed to be occuring... You gotta love the people who kissed gypsyfly's ass when she commented here and are now claiming she made these extravagant lies. Most of em were stackers too :roll:. In the end I probably broke even on this whole goddamn fiasco.

I don't know what you're talking about but I never kissed her ass

though I also am not aware of what happened in the thread that is apparently going on in your head

[J7.]

I don't know what you're talking about but I never kissed her ass

though I also am not aware of what happened in the thread that is apparently going on in your head
I never singled you out did I... I'm wondering wth is going on in your head. As you might be able to grasp, the ECA claims the discount is "no longer available" & the issue was the stacking. People stacked & abused the system, then those people rub it in everyone's faces and don't take any blame for it instead throwing the blame on anything else they can. They bring it up and laugh about it still. While others did not stack and lost money & lost out on the deal. Maybe now you can understand?

[xycury]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm receiving an automatic 10% off for any game in my cart.

btw I was a paid ECA member.

Hey I just place an order with my 10% discount and I went and added another game to my cart to see if it was still in there and the 10% is still there. I have no explanation for why it is but I'm not going to complain especially since I paid 20 bucks for membership(even though I have a savings of way over 60 bucks)



Old code that you put in and never used, OR a canceled order that you had an ECA code tied to.



STOP spreading this crap about auto 10%. ECA and Amazon are completely different entities and wouldn't have any control in releasing any kind of information that would tie the discount together by those two accounts.

[SpiderHulkThing]

can someone please explain the stacking concept to me? Was it that people were using the same eca code over and over for one game or does it mean they used the eca code + another discount?

[USB Cable]

can someone please explain the stacking concept to me? Was it that people were using the same eca code over and over for one game or does it mean they used the eca code + another discount?
I asked this question twice in this thread but no one loves me enough to answer lol

[y2jasper]

I asked this question twice in this thread but no one loves me enough to answer lol

we're having too much fun playing the blame game!

basically eca had 3 different batches of codes, first ones started with L, second with J, n last started with 66. it turned out though that amazon took these as different codes, so you could get up to 30% off if you had older codes.

[DefeatUForever]

Old code that you put in and never used, OR a canceled order that you had an ECA code tied to.



STOP spreading this crap about auto 10%. ECA and Amazon are completely different entities and wouldn't have any control in releasing any kind of information that would tie the discount together by those two accounts.

It wasn't in there yesterday and I haven't canceled any orders.

How am I spreading anything? I clearly said I have no explanation for it.

[DefeatUForever]

I asked this question twice in this thread but no one loves me enough to answer lol

there were different batches of codes, people were stacking the first batch with the second and than with the third to get 30% off.

[62t]

ummmm called this weeks ago when the discounts first disappeared.... Amazon probally wants nothing to do with ECA after the entire GI free account (no company is going to give all of these people 10% free on games) .... ECA will make up a story and blame it all on amazon (what they did ) amazon will never come back to ECA


Months ago ECA probally went to amazon and amazon goes how many people you have... ECA goes less then 10,000 .... Amazon thinks to sell well it could help both of us out and since people are PAYING To access ECA there wont be many people using the codes... Then all of a sudden BOOM that less then 10,000 = 50,000 + amazon goes, no way in hell we are going to issue that many codes and that you allowed stacking that you mostly #$#$# us over... We dont need you, eca needs us,,,, Good bye.

Eca makes up a story about how this is all amazon fault so the people will say its amazon fault and ECA can do no wrong.

sorry but like i said as soon as the codes disappered.. amazon is long gone and eca mostly just #$#$# everyone over

i sort of find it FUnny that if amazon say NO to the codes then whey do the old codes Still work..... More like amazon said NO MORE NEW CODES and ECA is making this entire story up

if all codes would be removed Old codes would not be still working...

totally agree. The GI coupon is a bigger problem than any stacking

[USB Cable]

we're having too much fun playing the blame game!

basically eca had 3 different batches of codes, first ones started with L, second with J, n last started with 66. it turned out though that amazon took these as different codes, so you could get up to 30% off if you had older codes.
Now I gedit! Thanks for clearing that up you and DefeatUForever. I put in about 10 codes from the last batch just so I didn't have to keep putting in a new one so I was thinking I did something wrong and Amazon was gonna send snipers for me. :-# I buy all my games from Amazon now so I used almost all of them on pre-orders and have about 1-2 left anyways.

I hope Amazon does their own membership situation for the codes I would gladly join that and enjoy a pack of tic tats! :-k

[Guerrilla]

Echoing y2jasper, slidecage, 62t and so on...

The free ECA memberships hurt Amazon more than the stacking; in fact, the stacking is merely an annoying result of the free membership debacle. Why?

Stacking was actually an internal issue for Amazon, since Amazon was the one issuing the codes to the ECA. Once the free membership floodgates opened the ECA was running out of codes in a matter of days, as opposed to a matter of months. At first, Amazon hastily provided new codes (rife with stacking glitches), but after a few accelerated batches Amazon probably realized that something was amiss with the ECA. Amazon could have corrected the stacking codes by being more careful with code creation or by issuing account codes, but they're not pleased with the ECA.

The ECA has created an external issue for Amazon, something which Amazon could not control: everyone and their dog can get a free ECA membership with a plain discount code. Instead of serving a select group of people, limited by the fact that they had to pay $15/$20 to reap the benefits, suddenly Amazon was bombarded by tens of thousands of free members demanding the same benefit. As slidecage and others have said, no business in their right mind would continue to honor that.

So what does that say about the ECA? They're mismanaged. By offering limitless complete memberships for free, the ECA has shown complete disregard for both their partners and their paying members. Their partners now have to contend with an abnormally enlarging base, and oddly enough, the ECA blames their partners for not keeping up with the demand. Their paying members have no actual benefits over the free members, and yet the ECA expects them to stay on board. There are a number of ways that the ECA could have prevented this, such as limiting the number of free memberships, reducing the free memberships to a limited trial period, limiting some benefits from free members, or merely reducing the cost by $5 for a limited amount of time. Free full memberships without any thought to the negative consequences shows really poor planning on their part.

While I support the reasoning behind the ECA, I will probably not renew my paid membership with them. There are ways to run free membership organizations, but this isn't it. They're driving membership numbers up at the expense of partners and paid members, and that really shows a lack of sense.

[Wolfpup]

Oh well, at least we know it's dead. I was waiting for that so I could buy stuff safety again :-/

I agree that the other discounts will probably be lame.

[hypermog]

double stacked a shit-ton of preorders and probably saved $200 for my $20 membership

[saturnotaku]

Echoing y2jasper, slidecage, 62t and so on...

The free ECA memberships hurt Amazon more than the stacking; in fact, the stacking is merely an annoying result of the free membership debacle. Why?

Stacking was actually an internal issue for Amazon, since Amazon was the one issuing the codes to the ECA. Once the free membership floodgates opened the ECA was running out of codes in a matter of days, as opposed to a matter of months. At first, Amazon hastily provided new codes (rife with stacking glitches), but after a few accelerated batches Amazon probably realized that something was amiss with the ECA. Amazon could have corrected the stacking codes by being more careful with code creation or by issuing account codes, but they're not pleased with the ECA.

The ECA has created an external issue for Amazon, something which Amazon could not control: everyone and their dog can get a free ECA membership with a plain discount code. Instead of serving a select group of people, limited by the fact that they had to pay $15/$20 to reap the benefits, suddenly Amazon was bombarded by tens of thousands of free members demanding the same benefit. As slidecage and others have said, no business in their right mind would continue to honor that.

So what does that say about the ECA? They're mismanaged. By offering limitless complete memberships for free, the ECA has shown complete disregard for both their partners and their paying members. Their partners now have to contend with an abnormally enlarging base, and oddly enough, the ECA blames their partners for not keeping up with the demand. Their paying members have no actual benefits over the free members, and yet the ECA expects them to stay on board. There are a number of ways that the ECA could have prevented this, such as limiting the number of free memberships, reducing the free memberships to a limited trial period, limiting some benefits from free members, or merely reducing the cost by $5 for a limited amount of time. Free full memberships without any thought to the negative consequences shows really poor planning on their part.

While I support the reasoning behind the ECA, I will probably not renew my paid membership with them. There are ways to run free membership organizations, but this isn't it. They're driving membership numbers up at the expense of partners and paid members, and that really shows a lack of sense.

Very well reasoned, and I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps a "tiered" membership system would have worked better. Free members get a couple paltry benefits. The $15-20 annual membership would get some better bonuses. Then maybe a $40-50 annual "platinum" membership would get the cream of the crop, including Amazon.

The current situation is all kinds of messed up, though. Unless they come back with something good, I certainly won't be renewing next year. I've already gotten more than my money's worth (and for the record, I never stacked any codes), so I might as well wait it out to see what happens.

[confoosious]

Didn't circuit city used to have a membership for $50 annually?

I'd pay that for a 10% off Amazon membership STRAIGHT from Amazon.

The ECA completely shit the bed.

[madcatz1999]

Echoing y2jasper, slidecage, 62t and so on...

The free ECA memberships hurt Amazon more than the stacking

I did read some stuff from the ECA (shortly after the codes went down) saying that Amazon had no problem with the ECA's overnight boost in membership. This was before they sat down and had a meeting, so perhaps that's not the case anymore. Did that meeting ever happen, by the way? I don't see the post/discussion up @ ECA anymore, but perhaps I'm just missing it.

Edit: Ah, found it. http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?t=6672

[jacknicklson]

They deleted the topic, so doubtful, and who knows if they were even telling the truth to begin with.

[62t]

Didn't circuit city used to have a membership for $50 annually?

I'd pay that for a 10% off Amazon membership STRAIGHT from Amazon.

The ECA completely shit the bed.

It used to be $20 for 1 year and you get 10% off all games. I got it free with the purchase of a system and easily saved more than $20

[the_grimace]

all i can say to all the talk about stacking, free membership, and lack of codes is this...

was it that hard for amazon to make a 10% off coupon?????

This whole issue seems to stem from amazon being at fault simply because they produced hastily made and faulty discount codes, which in reality people, i ask once again, how hard is it to make a 10% discount code...

In fact, to avoid all of this, amazon and ECA should have collaborated to link an eca account to an amazon account, making the 10% off instant. Not much that could go wrong with that method as well.

[arcane93]

While I support the reasoning behind the ECA, I will probably not renew my paid membership with them. There are ways to run free membership organizations, but this isn't it. They're driving membership numbers up at the expense of partners and paid members, and that really shows a lack of sense.

Agreed . . . Further, this is just one more example of the complete and utter lack of communication that I brought up as an issue earlier -- there is no good reason why we should have to come to the CAG forums to get information about what's going on with the ECA rather than having it come from the ECA themselves (all due respect and thanks to the OP of course, whatever his relationship to the ECA might be). And yet here it is, now a full day since this was posted here, and there is nothing on the ECA website or forums other than a very terse "this promotion is no longer available". Sorry, but that doesn't cut it at this point. I mean, I get why they would try to dodge the issue given the amount of flak they're bound to take for it, but they created the situation and now they should deal with it.

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

Has anyone actually tried this to confirm whether it cancels only the recurring billing or cancels the membership entirely? As tempting as it is to cancel my membership out of protest for the way they've handled everything, I would be seriously annoyed if they did actually manage to come up with another worthwhile offer later and I had to pay again to get it. Still, there's no way in hell that I want them to even try to auto-renew my membership at this point.

[jacknicklson]

It doesn't cancel your membership, just the recurring charge

[Jodou]

Has anyone actually tried this to confirm whether it cancels only the recurring billing or cancels the membership entirely? As tempting as it is to cancel my membership out of protest for the way they've handled everything, I would be seriously annoyed if they did actually manage to come up with another worthwhile offer later and I had to pay again to get it. Still, there's no way in hell that I want them to even try to auto-renew my membership at this point.
Just the recurring fee. . .in theory. I mean, you still have membership rights/access but it's anyone's guess as to whether they actually cancel the fee lol. I've done this myself, so I can vouch.

And honestly, what's the worst that could happen? Have to sign up for a new free triaLoL account?

[blissskr]

all i can say to all the talk about stacking, free membership, and lack of codes is this...

was it that hard for amazon to make a 10% off coupon?????

This whole issue seems to stem from amazon being at fault simply because they produced hastily made and faulty discount codes, which in reality people, i ask once again, how hard is it to make a 10% discount code...

In fact, to avoid all of this, amazon and ECA should have collaborated to link an eca account to an amazon account, making the 10% off instant. Not much that could go wrong with that method as well.
Why would or should Amazon care or spend there manpower or resources to accomodate the Eca? I mean seriously Amazon doesn't need the Eca but the Eca needed Amazon and there to blame by offering everyone and there brother a free membership.

[iowaholdem]

Well, I knew about the ECA for a long time, even knew about the free promo code from GI Mag, but I dragged my feet for so long that I only got 2 10% off codes by the time the closed up shop.

I can't complain, it's about $12 I'll save on games I'd be purchasing anyways, it's just a bummer to see it go.

I just went ahead and canceled the recurring fees on my account and can confirm that it does not end the membership benefits until the paid (or free) year is up.

ECA Full Membership This role will expire on 10/02/2010 - 20:04

[arcane93]

It doesn't cancel your membership, just the recurring charge

Thanks to everyone who answered. I was concerned by the "This action cannot be undone and may result in the termination of subscription services." message which comes up, but I suspect they probably mean that the subscription will now terminate at the end of the membership term, not anytime sooner. Anyway, recurring fee canceled -- they now have until August to impress me with something else (either another worthwhile benefit or actual accomplishments :lol:) if they want to see anything more from me.

[zohar]

I love this thread. Every time I'm bored at work, I just peek in here and read a couple of pages. :)

[wolve]

I love this thread. Every time I'm bored at work, I just peek in here and read a couple of pages. :)

You can say that again. ;)

Anyways, shame ECA coupons are dead but it was good while it lasted. Pretty sure I got at least $15 in discounts on Amazon, so I didn't lose out. Still annoyed, but the ending was inevitable.

[Vinny]

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

Thanks for posting that. I just canceled my recurring sub... I honestly don't care what other discounts they're going to offer, Amazon was the only one worth it. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be crappy.

[dmdragon]

oh well, I paid for a membership a week before free ones became available. At that time I went hog wild and preordered everything I could want all the way through the first quarter of next year. So I got my money back.

[Boeing 747]

I agree that the stacking sped up the process. But my question from the beginning was what amount of codes was Amazon comfortable with distributing. Sure, the quicker the codes are used, the more sales Amazon makes, BUT how much it's actually raising profits is difficult to determine. I never got the feeling that Amazon was comfortable just giving the ECA an endless supply of discount codes.

My feeling is that this is a partnership Amazon was reluctant to form in the first place, and these problems just showed them what a bad idea it was. I don't expect to see any prominent businesses linking up with ECA from here on out. The "new businesses" they're talking about adding will probably end up being Circuit City (aka Tigerdirect 2.0) or Barnes & Noble (aka We'll Give You 15% off by Charging 30% More!) As a paid subscriber of the ECA, until I hear something positive they actually accomplish for the gaming community, here's hoping they go down in flames.

I'm questioning if they made a profit at all on a 10% alone, of course I have no clue what their margins are but it's pretty common knowledge (or thought?) that it's not very high and since Amazon is already taking a nice part off ($2-$6 on brand new releases, months later typically $7-10). So I'm guessing their margins are slim to start and adding that 10% for everything just put it over the edge.

But I think you're absolutely right on the second bit, Amazon just needed a small justification to kill it and giving it out pretty much free and then the stacking was more then enough.

[jacknicklson]

LOL at scam, learn to read things when you sing up for them

[mykevermin]

Log in.

On the left side of the main page, inside the section "Member Login," click your user name.

Click the tab, "View."

Under "Recurring Fees" and under "Operations," there is an option to "Cancel."

Thanks for posting this, since I paid $20 for my fee about 10 days before the free shenanigans.

I did pretty well with the discounts, though (not stacking like the geedy ones, mind), and at the very worst, came out even as if I never bought the discount to begin with.

[seen]

In case anyone has missed it; the ECA is a non-profit which never advertised you were paying for an exclusive Amazon discount. More interestingly according to the ECA prez, most of the ppl complaining are the one's who got the service for free!!!

http://forums.theeca.com/showpost.php?p=111495&postcount=6

[Wolfpup]

Thanks for that link! I like that he spelled that all out, and hope this doesn't hurt them. I've been really impressed with Hal in the past (a big part of the reason I joined).

[62t]

What are some of the things he done in the past?

[seen]

What are some of the things he done in the past?

Not to be confrontational, but does it even matter? Were in the present, his organization is obviously in a bind give the guy a break...

[Jodou]

In case anyone has missed it; the ECA is a non-profit which never advertised you were paying for an exclusive Amazon discount. More interestingly according to the ECA prez, most of the ppl complaining are the one's who got the service for free!!!

http://forums.theeca.com/showpost.php?p=111495&postcount=6
But if you can't behave civilly and continue to send our staff abusive and threatening messages, we will terminate your membership and we will not allow you to renew.
Idle threats LOL! I could make as many free accounts as I wanted right now if I cared enough. This guy is a tool.

[bigdaddybruce44]

The irony of that statement is in a region that is far beyond mind-boggling.

LOL at scam, learn to read things when you sing up for them

Well, I think we've been around these boards long enough to know that anytime someone doesn't get what they want, they will likely refer to it as a "scam."

[Jodou]

The irony of that statement is in a region that is far beyond mind-boggling.
Well if it isn't my #1 fan. Hope you enjoyed the autograph I sent!

[Vinny]

In case anyone has missed it; the ECA is a non-profit which never advertised you were paying for an exclusive Amazon discount. More interestingly according to the ECA prez, most of the ppl complaining are the one's who got the service for free!!!

http://forums.theeca.com/showpost.php?p=111495&postcount=6

Before, they were saying how free accounts were NOT the reason for Amazon pulling the codes. And now they're saying the free accounts are the ones who are complaining about it?

Guess they're starting realize that maybe giving away free accounts wasn't a good idea.:roll:

This has been a huge disaster for The ECA's image. I doubt most people cared about how The ECA was proactive about gamers/gaming and only did it for the discounts but now, those people will only remember the ECA as the organization who said they would provide free discounts and then backed out.

About the only good thing from his post is that it sounds like they're trying to get more discounts (though sadly, not from Amazon) but I'd wager he is saying that just to cool people down a bit.

[Wolfpup]

That's what I'm worried about Vinny. Hopefully not...I don't think a lot of people understood what they were signing up for.

I mean I'm disappointed, but not THAT much because I may have supported them anyway-I'm probably going to let it renew even if they don't have any more discounts, but a lot of people seem to just think it was some discount club or something.

I'm honestly just happy that we KNOW they're gone. Amazon lost out on a lot of sales from me while I thought they were coming back.

[blissskr]

Its funny because before if you mentioned you only got a paid membership for the amazon discount and didn't care about the eca or what it claims it does, you'd be jumped all over in the old thread. Now not so much lol. I'd also like to see the number of paid members that have now cancelled renew their membership renewal, Im willing to bet its significant number. And their presidents message is a joke, sure if you call days between any updates and just stating anything to ease the community whilst not providing any real info good communication than the eca is great. And lol at threatening to take away the free memberships to your shitty organization, Im sure it would crush a number of people if you did so who never gave you a dime or cared about the eca to begin with but did enjoy a discount at amazon.

[NJMane]

The new discounts need to start already. This membership has been completely worthless for weeks now. And I am one of the schmucks who paid for it (given I did get the .edu discount ~ $15). Really gonna miss the Amazon discount.

[arcane93]

Not to be confrontational, but does it even matter? Were in the present, his organization is obviously in a bind give the guy a break...

Actually, yes it does matter. He claims that everything they do "is public and very visible", but my response to that, then, is that if that's the case they must not be doing very damn much. Again, I've gone all through their site looking for what it is they're actually doing (not position statements, not web petitions, not editorials, etc., but actions and accomplishments) and have come out empty handed. From what I see, it looks to me like they're just hiding behind a lot of pretty-sounding but ultimately empty rhetoric.

He also claims that they send out a "monthly membership newsletter", but I haven't received one (or anything else) since joining (and I check my spam box regularly, so I know it didn't get dumped in there). Again, I don't want daily gaming industry news, I don't want a job in gaming, and I don't want social networking -- I want to know what the ECA has done and is doing with the money that I gave them (because yes, Hal, I'm vocal and I'm a paying member).

Just because they managed to get non-profit status registered with the IRS doesn't mean that they're actually an effective, or even legitimate, organization.

But believe me, I want to be proven wrong on that.

And I'll admit -- while they had the Amazon discount, I didn't really care, because I felt like I was getting my money's worth regardless. But if they now want me to care about the organization for the sake of the organization, then I want to see some accountability.

I do agree with him that there's no reason not to be civil (and when their people chose not to be civil to me for asking questions on their forums, I chose to just not go back rather than responding in kind). But I think they'd see a lot more civility if they were more forthcoming with answers.

[gi60]

In case anyone has missed it; the ECA is a non-profit which never advertised you were paying for an exclusive Amazon discount. More interestingly according to the ECA prez, most of the ppl complaining are the one's who got the service for free!!!

http://forums.theeca.com/showpost.php?p=111495&postcount=6

Mmm, I just don't get this eca president. Why attack the free member by giving this quote

1st quote
"And we occasionally run promotional 3, 6 and 12 month free trial promos, which is the smallest category, but apparently most vocal "
Isn't that being vocal is good in this kind of organization? You need to be more vocal to be heard. And why blaming a specific group (free member in this case), as a professional organization or business, you never blame or critize a member or customer, unless they're breaking a law.


2nd quote:
"I am not a big forums person, but will check my PMs, so feel free to message me there if you have additional questions, comments or complaints."

Again, if you don't like being in a forum; where people exchange comments, ideas, etc; why are you becoming the president of an organization that supposed to being vocal to the industry to defend all gamers?


3rd quote: "But if you can't behave civilly and continue to send our staff abusive and threatening messages, we will terminate your membership and we will not allow you to renew."

Threat??? What kind of president are you? LOL...


I'm a paying member by the way, and already get my membership back from Amazon discounts... And I'm not going to renew my membership next year, not because Amazon is gone, but because I don't like the way this president handle a simple matter like this.

[J7.]

The ECA seems to be run as well as BBV, only more shady and less books.

[yourlefthand]

In case anyone has missed it; the ECA is a non-profit which never advertised you were paying for an exclusive Amazon discount. More interestingly according to the ECA prez, most of the ppl complaining are the one's who got the service for free!!!

http://forums.theeca.com/showpost.php?p=111495&postcount=6


Actually, when people were still paying for memberships, there was verbiage about how it would pay for your membership if you bought 2-3 games per year.

Also, it isn't like the free memberships were some kind of hack or cheat. They freely advertised the no-cost membership. He has no room to complain about those members being vocal.

[Lucian]

Actually, yes it does matter. He claims that everything they do "is public and very visible", but my response to that, then, is that if that's the case they must not be doing very damn much. Again, I've gone all through their site looking for what it is they're actually doing (not position statements, not web petitions, not editorials, etc., but actions and accomplishments) and have come out empty handed. From what I see, it looks to me like they're just hiding behind a lot of pretty-sounding but ultimately empty rhetoric.
<snip>
All very well said, arcane.

[n8rockerasu]

Actually, when people were still paying for memberships, there was verbiage about how it would pay for your membership if you bought 2-3 games per year.

Also, it isn't like the free memberships were some kind of hack or cheat. They freely advertised the no-cost membership. He has no room to complain about those members being vocal.

Yeah, I can confirm this. It was something they marketed as though it justified the expense. It's not like it was being pushed as the ONLY reason to sign up, but they weren't shy about puffing out their chests about it. And I don't blame them because landing that discount was a huge accomplishment. But it seemed like they got in over their heads quickly and completely botched the execution.

With competent management, Amazon could have been an incredibly lucrative partner for the ECA. But giving out free access to the discounts that Amazon was so gracious to even consider offering was a slap in the face. Maybe the free membership was the only way to get the ECA in Game Informer, but they really didn't need that to increase membership. Sure, it gave them a huge boom, but it also was their greatest downfall.

Slowly but surely would have been a better approach. And with a steady Amazon discount, word of mouth and small internet ads would have been effective enough to increase membership and convince people that the $15-20 fee was worth it.

As others have mentioned, now that we're (and when I say WE, I mean the people who gave money to support the organization...not the parasites who killed the goose and are now crying about it) expected to be trustworthy, honorable people who care about the good that the organization does, we also deserve to read reports and see results of what they're accomplishing. Like it or not, it's a two way street.

[icedrake523]

Shame it's gone. Though I will continue to use Amazon.

I paid $15 and I definitely paid it off. ECA was dumb to give out free memberships, especially if they had this Amazon discount. Though Amazon should have found a better way to give out discounts to prevent stacking.

[slidecage]

thought they said new discounts coming last week... weeks up and nothing new is posted or at least nothing i see...

[gage006]

Damn, I need a code for the MW2 Preorder =/

[naes]

I preordered GoW3 w/ ECA and want to cancel to preorder the Ultimate Edition, which just appeared in my Gold Box. Is there any way I could cancel the regular preorder and get the ECA code back and use that on the UE?

[saturnotaku]

I preordered GoW3 w/ ECA and want to cancel to preorder the Ultimate Edition, which just appeared in my Gold Box. Is there any way I could cancel the regular preorder and get the ECA code back and use that on the UE?

When you cancel, the code should automatically go back to your account so that when you place the new order, the discount should automatically be re-applied without having to enter any promo code at all.

[blissskr]

When you cancel, the code should automatically go back to your account so that when you place the new order, the discount should automatically be re-applied without having to enter any promo code at all.
I wouldn't be so sure, I had unused codes on my account and they're now gone. I then tried canceling a preorder to do what you just told him to do and it removed the code completely leaving no discount.

[io]

I wouldn't be so sure, I had unused codes on my account and they're now gone. I then tried canceling a preorder to do what you just told him to do and it removed the code completely leaving no discount.

De-confirmed ;). I just checked and the 'J' code I've had sitting on my account for weeks is still there. The other codes, of course, expired long ago so if it was one of those on your preorder you wouldn't get it back.

I had fully expected the 'J' codes to expire on Nov 1st as they seem to give a 30-day grace period for these codes, but I'm glad it is still there. I just haven't bought anything from Amazon in like 3 weeks so there it will remain until I see a need for it. One reason is that I preordered pretty much all I wanted through 2010 a few months back when I first signed up for ECA plus had $30 trade-in promo coupons to use.

But for sure there will have to be a decent DotD or lightning deal to use it on sooner or later.

[Jodou]

Yeah, I'm glad I stocked up on codes the first time there was downtime because I've still got roughly five tied to the account. Hoping they last til BF at least or any other hot deals that pop up this year.

[greyzieoriental]

I just pre-ordered GOW3 with the code that was sitting in my account.
I had a few left over "J" codes and they still work. So I can also confirm.

[Kirin Lemon]

How strange. My leftover J codes weren't working the other day, but now they are. Weird!